“Oh. I thought there was.” He took the food but felt he had no right to eat, since he’d be deserting them.
The same twin added, “Mother said the mountain is telling us to go away for a little while. I feel it talking, but I don’t see how she can understand the words.”
They wouldn’t all be able to get down the mountain without him. The donkey wasn’t big enough or strong enough to carry them, and the cart would be useless in this snow. In the growing light he scanned the landscape.
The cottage backed against the mountain. Above was snow and boulders. A half mile below, a forest grew, evergreens mixed with bare branches—no other cottages, no aid in sight.
The baby’s cry blared from the hut, then stopped.
If he flew to the Oase, his knowledge might provide the clue that led to the Replica. Or the mystery would remain a mystery and these people would die.
Widow Fridda emerged from the cottage with the baby in a sling across her chest and satchels in each hand. “You didn’t eat.”
He bit into the bread, devoured it quickly, watched intently by four pairs of eyes, and started on the cheese. The widow hung the sacks across the donkey’s back.
His Lordship swallowed. “Don’t. I’ll shape-shift into a draft horse and carry everyone and the satchels. The donkey can come, too, but she may run off.”
“You can be a horse?” the oldest girl said.
“A docile one. A true horse, however. If you talk to me, I won’t understand the words. But if there’s danger, I’ll wake up inside the horse.” He finished the cheese. “Widow Fridda, please go inside with the children. I have to take off these clothes or I’ll rip them. Please bring them with us.”
“Hurry, children.”
He stripped, folded his new things neatly, and began to shape-shift. The donkey brayed once and fell silent. A minute later, a large piebald horse waited outside the cottage, the ogre’s intelligence fading from his eyes.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Masteress Meenore spied in the distance, black against the gray dawn, the peak of Zertrum Mountain, which resembled a gaping fish.
IT thought, I am a prodigious, fleet flyer. And I am an authority on pyrology, the principles and attributes of fire. Invisible to the human eye—possibly even to the brunka eye—a film of heat shimmers above the peak: the mountain prepares to spew.
IT urged ITs wings to greater speed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Elodie slept through breakfast, although the table hadn’t yet been taken down when she awoke. First she needed the garderobe. Not thinking, she headed for the corridor door from the great hall, which Dror-bee was guarding. “Stop! No one can leave.” Ardent as ever, he repeated, “Stop!”
“But I came after the theft.”
Dror-bee asked High Brunka Marya to rule.
“Apologies, lamb. I can’t let you go alone and no one else.” She appointed Ludda-bee and Johan-bee to conduct Elodie to the privy.
Elodie wondered if the high brunka paired the two to push Johan-bee to stand up for himself, or if it was a kindness to send him, because he’d be able to use the garderobe himself. Outside the great hall, she asked to be led to the privy closest to where the Replica was kept.
Ludda-bee complained about the extra distance, but she didn’t say no.
As they walked, Elodie was aware that the thief had come this way. When they neared the turn into the high brunka’s corridor, she thought, If the villain had an accomplice, he or she might have slipped into one of these rooms. High Brunka Marya said they were all unoccupied now. On Master Robbie’s map IT had pointed at this room on her left, the Ferret Room. She decided to ferret about in there and wished she could tell IT the pun. Enh enh enh.
“Can I look in here?” Without waiting for an answer, she went in.
“You think the Replica may be there?” Ludda-bee asked, following her in.
“I just want to see something.”
Johan-bee stayed in the doorway. Inside, there was hardly enough space for two. The cook reeked of animal fat and garlic. This chamber was narrower than Elodie’s own Donkey Room, but it still held a bed, a chest, and a stool. If the box had been hidden in here, the thief would have put it where Ursa-bee wouldn’t see.
No use looking in the chest, because if the handkerchief had been in there, the lid would have muffled the weeping. The floor seemed evenly strewn with floor rushes, but—she peered under the bed—had the rushes been disturbed there?
Ludda-bee grunted and crouched, too.
Too dark to tell, where there were no glowworms. Elodie tried to pull the bed out of the way as far as it would go, but it was too heavy.
“Help the girl, you inconsiderate oaf.”
Ludda-bee and Elodie had to leave the room so Johan-bee could work. He pulled the bed out. From the doorway, Elodie saw rushes with no sign they’d been disturbed, except where Johan-bee had moved the legs.